


Days of Sand

by joyeusenoelle



Category: Ancient History RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-14
Updated: 2015-06-14
Packaged: 2018-04-04 07:39:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4129936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joyeusenoelle/pseuds/joyeusenoelle





	Days of Sand

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sevenofspade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevenofspade/gifts).



Publius squinted and peered ahead, past camels and riders, carts and drivers, but the desert was relentless. The caravan continued its trek across the sands. "How long is it?"

"How long is what?"

"Since we were in real beds, in a real city."

"We left Damascus three days ago."

"Are you sure we haven't always been in the desert?"

Hannibal had pulled a jar from one of the saddlebags slung over his camel. He frowned. "These olives are not satisfactory."

"You will, of course, find something to complain about."

"As though you didn't just do the same. Have you tried the olives, Publius?"

Hannibal's companion shook his head. "I was never fond of olives. Too many of them at home. But the grapes, ah!"

"There is something about the soil there that makes the olives unpalatable. It's unacceptable."

Publius sighed. "Hannibal, at some point you must accept that we are not in Qart Hadasht anymore."

"Publius, I am no longer a child. I like the things I knew when I was. These olives are…"

"Hannibal!" Publius finally turned to look at his friend. "The olives are acceptable. You know they are. We are not going to go through what we went through in Melitene. We will not make a public spectacle over _olives_!"

Hannibal was silent for a moment. Then he said, "I crossed the Alps for you, you know."

"As you remind me," said Publius Cornelius Scipio, "every time we disagree. And every time I remind you that I defeated you then and I'll defeat you again if I must."

Hannibal laughed sharply. "You couldn't defeat me in a wrestling match these days, Publius."

Publius rolled his eyes. "We both know why that is, Hannibal. Eat your olives."

They rode along the desert road in silence for a while.

"Do you know," said Publius, "I am told that my old friend Marcus Porcius Cato is telling people that Qart Hadasht must be destroyed every time he speaks. Even during his dinner orders!" Hannibal laughed. "'I would like the snails, Gaius Aemilianus, and by the way, I think Carthage must be destroyed!' What a fool he is."

Hannibal looked down at his camel. "He does have a way with words, doesn't he?"

"You know, he and I are of an age? Well, almost. My year of birth was two beyond his. But he always felt like a child to me. So set in his ways, so insistent that he was correct! No capacity to adapt at all." Publius rocked with his camel, a broad-brimmed hat shielding him from the sun. Hannibal had opted for a simple cap and what, to Publius, seemed like vast quantities of water. "You know, you have eleven years on me?"

"I never counted," said Hannibal. "You were a worthy opponent. That was all that mattered."

"All I mean is that Cato has always seemed old. You're a decade my elder and feel to me like you're my age. Cato is two years younger than I and I am fairly certain he has been elderly since his youth."

Hannibal laughed, not bothering to disguise it. Some of the other caravaners looked over. "In fairness, from what I have read of his oratory, he wishes he were my age, or older!"

"You've read Cato's speeches?"

"Whenever I get the chance. He wants to destroy Qart Hadasht. I feel obliged to stay informed."

Publius was silent for a moment. "Even though you can never return?"

"It's my city, Publius. I will be a man of Qart Hadasht until I die."

Another silence. "Even though they abandoned you? Pushed you into exile?"

"Even though." A pause. "Could you ever not be a man of Rome?"

"Not with Cato there." Hannibal laughed again, but Publius shook his head. "No, truly! I was tired of Rome, and Rome was tired of me. I had heard that stone-faced Cato was preparing to launch another lawsuit against me - three, in five years - and I didn't have the heart to watch the city of my birth come for me again, after all I had given them." He sighed. "I hear that my poor Aemilia has erected a tomb for me at my villa at Liternum. I can only imagine what she thinks, although I did leave a letter for her."

"Ah, family. If I'd had a wife, children-"

"I thought you had a wife, an Iberian."

"You know what they say about rumors. My brother by marriage Hasdrubal took a wife from Iberia, and I suspect that is the source of that fiction."

"Did you ever consider taking a wife?"

"Like your Cato, I enjoy snails, and had little patience for pretense." Hannibal shook his head. "Perhaps they would not have been so quick to give me up if I had given the city children as well as generalship."

"In my experience, cities like ours think less of children than of generalship."

"Your experience was winning at Zama, Publius."

"I see what you mean."

"Do you? Your children will be victims of your enemies and your legacy. Mine might have provided vindication to the city, if they had inherited my greatness but not my bad fortune."

"Bad _fortune_!" Publius spat on the sand. The camel followed suit. "I outfought you at Zama, you inflated-"

"Bad fortune to be matched against you," Hannibal said, laughing. "I acknowledge my defeat."

" _Thank_ you."

Hannibal shook his head. "I don't know if children would have made a difference. Perhaps I would not have been as good a general. Perhaps my Qart Hadasht would have protested when I left. Perhaps I would not think so highly of them."

"'If only', and 'perhaps', and 'but for fortune' - we could proceed all day, Hannibal, and be no wiser than we are now."

"That is true. We should look to the future." Hannibal squinted and peered ahead, past camels and riders, carts and drivers. "Our future holds an oasis, if my vision doesn't fail me."

"No, I see it as well," Publius said. "Perhaps I can finally wash this sand off of my skin." He drew a finger distastefully along his bare arm and showed the resulting streak to Hannibal.

"I wouldn't mind a bath," Hannibal replied. "My beard is as filthy as your skin."

"How you can wear that in this heat I still cannot imagine. I couldn't stand mine in Italy, let alone this blasted wasteland."

Dogs at the edge of the oasis began to bay as they caught scent, sight, and sound of the approaching caravan. Hannibal smiled slyly. "Cato's friends have found you," he said.

Publius laughed. "It felt that way, at times. Oh, I miss the old days, Hannibal. Not the years of exile, but the honeyed days when we were young. We were great men once, you and I. By Hercules, you drove elephants over the greatest mountains in the world, and I was given triumphs! And now we ride these filthy beasts and hope no one happens to know us."

"All old men pine for their youth, Publius. I would rather have this than have sat exiled in Bithynia these last years, or been sent to Rome as a peace offering from their coward king."

"And I would rather have this than a barrage of lawsuits and slander from the stony-faced hound of Rome and his cronies."

"You look good even with sandy skin."

"You look good even though you refuse to shave."

They reached out and touched fingertips. The caravan continued on.


End file.
